Reddit reviews The Catholic Controversy

It depends (in part) on the kind of Baptist they are. If they're at all Calvinist, this book by St. Francis de Sales did wonders for my own conversion. It's online here for free.

Most Baptists, though, are more Arminian, and de Sales' book will still have some very persuasive arguments (about the origin of the canon of Scripture and the nature of the visible Church, for example), but others will fall flat (because they depend on the audience believing in double predestination). It's a good resource regardless, but be aware of how the arguments you use may land.

Since your father-in-law is the son of a preacher, he may be fairly well-versed in his own theology. In that case, tackling all of the issues will be difficult in brief. If your in-laws are not well-read in their theology, then most of their accusations will be of the anthropocentric, institutional variety--"But Galileo and the Spanish Inquisition and child abuse and intentionally obfuscating Scripture by using Latin and burning heretics who just wanted people to read the Bible," and so on. These are fairly easy to refute (history is on your side here), but difficult to convince someone against (because they are often taught from an early age, one way or another, and become emotional pleas instead of logical arguments). I haven't read it in full, but I'm given to understand that this book is quite good with those historical "arguments."

As u/Akzum said, Catholic Answers is phenomenal. I listened to it quite a lot before finalizing my conversion.

One final, somewhat self-aggrandizing note--I share this a lot (probably too much for all redditors to like me for it), but I was received into the Church a little over three years ago, and last year, I decided it was time to disabuse my parents (especially my mother) of the notion that I only converted because my wife is Catholic. I started a blog series in which I addressed every (or nearly every) argument I had used (or heard used) against the Catholic Church by Protestants and refuted it to the best of my ability, building upon earlier posts as I went. (In retrospect, the series doesn't really start to get good, in my opinion, until 8 or 10 posts in.) The table of contents for that (not quite complete) series is here. The titles may not make clear the subject of each post, so I may go back and add brief descriptions, but the short order is: Church authority, the canon of Scripture, the papacy, the priesthood, Church unity, the basics of Catholic morality, original sin, the sacraments, sacramentals, saints, Mary, sanctification, Catholic "scandals" (historical arguments), and Catholic moral behavior. When I finish that bit, I'll add posts on aetiology and eschatology. So I like to think it's pretty thorough, but it may not be helpful at all depending on where your in-laws are coming from (since it's primarily a recounting of my conversion, not a work of apologetics).

Hope that helps! Talking to family (perhaps especially in-laws) about this is really tough; both my wife and I are converts, and we're raising our children Catholic, so I think this festers a lot with our extended families, and it's difficult to keep it from being a problem.

Read David Bentley Hart's The Doors of the Sea. I'd also recommend this.

I am ex-Reformed. For me, what led me out of Protestantism was the belief in a continuous church. If you want to learn about why we Catholics and Orthodox have seven sacraments, reverence icons, and pray to the saints, there are all kinds of books out there that deal with these issues specifically. Here are the books I recommend if you are Reformed and want to know more about Apostolick expressions of Christianity:

The Catholic Controversy - St Francis de Sales

Faith of our Fathers - James Cardinal Gibbons

If you don't have the funds to purchase these books, you can probably find most of them online. If not, send me a PM and I will arrange to have something sent to you.

Best regards and God bless you in your search.

No problem. Here's a link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Controversy-Defense-Faith/dp/0895553872

There may also be a free .pdf version floating around out there too, but I always prefer to read things in hard copy if possible.

I've been wanting to read The Catholic Controversy, which is a collection of the pamphlets he wrote defending the faith against the Calvinists. Have you read it?

I'm so glad you're looking into it!

As far as Catholic lit on the Reformation - you could read St. Francis de Sales' work here. It's actually his feast day today in the new calendar. St. Francis lived during the time of the Reformation and won back thousands of souls to the Catholic Church through his preaching. He's an incredible guy.

A scholarly book on the effects of the Reformation on the Western world is Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation.

The Catholic Controversy by St. Francis de Sales.

Between 1594 and 1598, a preacher named Francois converted 72,000 Protestants to the Catholic Faith.

I have a friend that was converted from paganism by this book alone.

I bought two physical paperback copies of this same book on Amazon. I really liked it a lot from the little I read.

But before I could really read it, I rashly gave one copy to the Protestant pastor at the church we used to go before I converted to Catholicism, hoping he would read it and it might enlighten him, but he said it hasn't changed anything for him, and it's still sitting on his desk somewhere or something. I should probably email him and ask for it back.

And I gave my second copy to a friend who is really into lay apologetics, and I think he forgot that he has it or maybe he forgot that it's mine.

Those both happened early last year, so maybe it's been long enough that it's okay to ask for them both back now?